Examining the Gap: Compensation Disparities between Male and Female Physician Assistants.

BACKGROUND: Compensation disparities between men and women have been problematic for decades, and there is considerable evidence that the gap cannot be entirely explained by nongender factors. The current study examined the compensation gap in the physician assistant (PA) profession. METHODS: Compensation data from 2014 was collected by the American Academy of PAs in 2015. Practice variables, including experience, specialty, and hours worked, were controlled for in an ordinary least-squares sequential regression model to examine whether there remained a disparity in total compensation. In addition, the absolute disparity in compensation was compared with historical data collected by American Academy of PAs over the previous 1.5 decades. RESULTS: Without controlling for practice variables, a total compensation disparity of $16,052 existed between men and women in the PA profession. Even after PA practice variables were controlled for, a total compensation disparity of$9,695 remained between men and women (95% confidence interval, $8,438-$10,952). A 17-year trend indicates the absolute disparity between men and women has not lessened, although the disparity as a percent of male compensation has decreased in recent years. CONCLUSIONS: There remain challenges to ensuring pay equality in the PA profession. Even when compensation-relevant factors such as experience, hours worked, specialty, postgraduate training, region, and call are controlled for, there is still a substantial gender disparity in PA compensation. Remedies that may address this pay inequality include raising awareness of compensation disparities, teaching effective negotiation skills, assisting employers as they develop equitable compensation plans, having less reliance on past salary in position negotiation, and professional associations advocating for policies that support equal wages and opportunities, regardless of personal characteristics

Not Only How Much but How: The Importance of Diversifying Funding Streams in a Reimagined Public Health System

Revenue diversification may be a synergistic strategy for transforming public health, yet few national or trend data are available. This study quantified and identified patterns in revenue diversification in public health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used National Association of County and City Health Officials’ National Profile of Local Health Departments study data for 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2022 to calculate a yearly diversification index for local health departments. Respondents’ revenue portfolios changed fairly little between 2016 and 2022. Compared with less-diversified local health departments, well-diversified departments reported a balanced portfolio with local, state, federal, and clinical sources of revenue and higher per capita revenues. Less-diversified local health departments relied heavily on local sources and saw lower revenues. The COVID-19 period exacerbated these differences, with less-diversified departments seeing little revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. Revenue portfolios are an underexamined aspect of the public health system, and this study suggests that some organizations may be under financial strain by not having diverse revenue portfolios. Practitioners have ways of enhancing diversification, and policy attention is needed to incentivize and support revenue diversification to enhance the financial resilience and sustainability of local health departments

Comprehensive study of swash-zone hydrodynamics and sediment transport

A comprehensive study of swash-zone sediment transport was conducted on a macro-tidal beach in Perranporth, UK. The unique study is the first to simultaneously measure suspended sediment and sheet flow sediment concentrations and near bed velocity on a natural beach. Data collected during the study will be used to address the importance of sheet flow processes on swash zone sediment transport and morphology, the variability in the near bed velocity profile and the importance of alongshore and vertical flows, cross-shore advection of turbulence and the inference of swash zone forcing and momentum transfer from remotely sensed data

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment